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Posts Tagged ‘martha wainwright’

This past week was all about Kate, and what a week it was. The family got to see the new monument for the first time on Sun Aug 4. The simple white stone designed by Rufus and Martha and executed by the Brunet family of Ormstown is a fitting tribute to the lovely talented Kate. Her drawing of ‘Skigirl’ graces the front of the stone and on the back is a banjo incorporating lyrics from Kate’s Talk to Me of Mendocino drawn by Rufus.

On Aug. 7 the Place Kate-McGarrigle, a new parkette, on Laurier near Querbes in Outremont, was officially opened and amidst all the speeches and tributes was a special one by Kate’s old friend and piper Ken Mackenzie. Upon hearing the stirring pipes, the President of the Outremont Historical Society turned to me and said ‘I thought you were of Irish and French descent?’ Well, we are mostly, but our paternal grandmother was Joanna Gillis of Fairville, N.B. and for sure we’ve also got good old Native Canadian blood on my mother’s side, like most French-Canadians.

On the evening of Aug 8 the family along with special guests, Robert Charlebois, Marie-Michele Desrosiers, Michel Rivard, Fanny Bloom and Pierre Lapointe did two pretty amazing back-to-back concerts at the Outremont Theatre on Bernard Ouest, in aid of the Kate McGarrigle Fund for Cancer Research. This was followed by an all-night party at Campbell Hendery’s place in the Mile-End..I’m still recovering. Merci, mercy…thank you.

Fabienne Larouche, the creator and producer of this very popular Quebec series about the lives of emergency room docs, invited Kate’s daughter and my niece, Martha Wainwright to do the 10 songs for this year’s cru now in it’s 4th season. For the past 3 seasons Ariane Moffatt and then Pascale Picard, 2 local artistes, sang popular English songs hand-picked by Fabienne that were then incorporated into the shows. This time around Fabienne thought she’d switch things up and asked Martha, considered to be an English-speaking artist, to interpret the season’s 10 new songs in French. Some of these are Martha’s own compos now translated into French but a couple of the songs are Quebec classics. In particular Offenbach’s, ‘Ayoye, tu m’fais mal’ (Ouch, you’re hurting me) the late Gerry Boulet’s signature song. Martha’s spectacularly emotive take on this song kicked-off the new Trauma season this past week and to use a rather crude term a small sh-tstorm has ensued. Most people like her version but there are dissenters. Some fans of the series don’t think people should be messing with the song, especially an Anglo. I’d like to point out that Martha is a dual-citizen of the U.S. and Canada has many French pure-laine ancestors, to name but a few: Arthur Latrémouille (originally from Embrun, On. same place as singing sensation/imitator Véronic Dicaire is from (we’re probably related!) Cordelia Primeau (Ste-Martine), Edouard Côté (Montréal.) Also, that from the age of 2 months (when her parents split up) Martha grew up in Montréal and graduated from Collège Rachel on the Plateau (now College Laurier.) If you want to join the discussion here’s Trauma’s facebook page. Trauma There are itunes links there for Martha’s cover of Ayoye and for the music from past seasons.

I should mention that the songs that Martha has done for Trauma will be released one at a time as they appear in the series and will be available on itunes. A compilation CD will also be released by Maple Music. Not all the songs that Martha cut for the series (limited to 10) are being used but they will all be on the CD or available as downloads. Enjoy Trauma!

Watching the news tonight, my heart goes out to all you poor NYorkers and New Jerseyites. I pray for you all and wish I could do something. Come to Montreal if you can. It’s a great place. There’s lots of room here. We need some serious immigration to Canada!

This video was inspired by Martha’s song Radio Star on her latest CD Come Home to Mama and the amazing full-Moons we’ve had lately that I’m in the habit of filming from our front porch. Sounds a bit grand. I use an old Flip videocam that I put on a tripod then go back in the kitchen and make supper while the Moon rises. The problem is the Moon is small and moves so slowly that I had to figure out ways to make it bigger, manipulate it and make it do silly stuff. I worship Steve Jobs (and proud of it) and everybody at Apple for making it the most innovative company that ever was/IS for us the artist/individualist/musician. Thank you Martha, Moon, Nessie, albino squirrel and cute dogs from Montreal’s Plateau, and Sylvan L. for putting it together for me in Final Cut.

MARTHA’S NEW WEBSITEMartha has a new CD. It’s got lots of great new songs beautifully produced by Yuka C. Honda. Here’s a video of Martha doing Kate’s Proserpina. This is the last song Kate wrote. It was around mid-October 2009. She sang it in the Royal Albert Hall Christmas show on Dec 9. This was to be her last public performance.

Last Tuesday I drove up to Québec City to see Martha perform at the annual sprawling Festival d’été. There are many stages throughout the City and she was playing Le pigeonnier, a stage Kate and I had played in the mid 90s. I don’t have to tell you, Martha was Magnificent. The audience was in her thrall throughout. At one point she kindly asked me to join her on stage so I could massacre Entre Lajeunesse et la sagesse on the piano while she sang it like an angel. In all the years I’ve sung and sometimes played the bass on that song I had never actually played it on piano. It’s tough! as Barbie would say. I think I’ve got it now. Then Marianne Faithfull took the stage and did a very charming and heartfelt set with her band led by Kate St John.

This week Rufus, Martha, Loudon, Lucy, Brad, Thomas, Calum, Lily, and the Arc of the Covent, are all over in London doing Rufus week at Covent Garden. It sounds like it’s going to be wonderful. Check out Rufus’s site for details of this coming week’s presentations: RUFUS WAINWRIGHT SITE

The Cedars people sure know how to put on a fundraising gala. First of all get Lance Armstrong and a bunch of wealthy cyclists committed to cancer research, plenty of excellent food and drink, outstanding entertainment which included Martha and Rufus who were joined on stage by Brad and Kate, and you have the makings for a wonderful event. The setting for Heroes Night at the Mt Tremblant Casino and in the massive adjacent tent was worthy of Fellini, or a ceremony atop Mt Olympus? Little cedar trees instead of laurel crowns. I can hear Kate who knows her mythology saying ‘heroes are but fallen gods’.. whatever. I was impressed. Riding the silent gondola across the dark mountain under a beautiful starlit sky and alighting at the other end in the centre of ‘the village’ was the perfect conclusion to a most memorable evening. And they raised a ‘lot’ of money for the Cedars Cancer Institute of the MUHC.

Thanks to all who made this possible.

And don’t forget this year’s Xmas concert, A not so Silent Night, to be held Dec 9 09 at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. The Kate McGarrigle Fund within the MUHC.

Having trouble loading pics to this site. If you want to see Kate and Lance go to gardencourt

The Cedars Cancer Institute of the MUHC is honouring some local notables this evening at their Heroes Night Gala which is being held at the Casino Mont-Tremblant, QC. Kate along with hockey stars Jean Beliveau and Saku Koivu among others are to receive their honours from the great Lance Armstrong who is leading a pack of 50 bike riders on a 100 km course before the dinner and ceremony. Rufus and Martha Wainwright will grace the stage along with their mum during the post-dinner concert.

Congrats.

For further information please contact the Cedars office at 514-843-1606 or go to Tour de Lance

Kate also has her own charity, The Kate McGarrigle Fund within the MUHC.
Go here if you want info on ‘A Not So Silent Night’ this year’s Christmas Show to be held at the Royal Albert Hall, London UK, Dec 9 09.

As mentioned on an earlier gardencourt blog, the singular Kate, intrepid Rufus and passionate Martha and the fab Norah Jones performed last weekend at the Watermill Foundation fundraiser “The Last Song of Summer” and they wowed the crowd as reported here at Vanity Fair. By the looks of it Jörn wowed them too! And Brad and Thomas B.

We didn’t make the cut for the 90 min. version of the Seeger 90th show that PBS is airing this Sunday night, so here we are doing Dink’s Song, our contribution. Kate, Bruce, Martha, Rufus, Chaim and Anna. We frankly thought it was beautiful but I guess it didn’t have enough star power. We first heard Dave Van Ronk sing it in Montreal in the early 60s. P.S. This performance was included in the 2 hr special that was aired in some markets. It’s also on the Seeger 90th DVD.